Question

discuss why the western democracies adopted a policy of appeasement in response to hitler's aggression.

Answer 1

They did not another world war, so Britain, US, and France gave Czechoslovakia to Hitler, and Russia had a nonaggression pact until the Reich invaded Poland.<span />

Answer 2

The appeasement policy, in the international sphere, consists on making political or material concessions to an aggressive country or organization in order to avoid starting a conflict (war).

European Allied powers (UK and France, the Western democracies), during the 1930s, made territorial concessions to Hitler as, they were still in the aftermath of WWI and they wanted to avoid a new war by all means. After signing the Munich Agreement, also known as Munich Betrayal, in 1938, Hitler managed to obtain the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia with no opposition from the allies. It is significant to mention that France even had a prior alliance with Czechoslovakia and dishonoured it when embracing this agreement.

Of course Hitler was not willing to stop with these annexations and, in the end, the Allied powers had to declare war to Germany as he continued with the territorial expansions unilaterally but, before, they had allowed Hitler to became stronger with no opposition.